Expecting the SEAL’s Baby by Katie Knight

Six

I should never have agreed to this, Jeremy thought. Back in her apartment, he’d listed the rational reasons why she shouldn’t accompany him to Colombia, but he’d left off the personal one. And that was the one biting him in the ass now.

He’d been sitting next to Gina for the past ten hours as they flew from San Diego to Bogota. Right next to her, her shoulder bumping his when either of them shifted position. He was hyperaware of her, her breathing, the light scent of her perfume, the way her dark eyelashes brushed against her cheeks when she closed her eyes. He’d been staring so much at her that he was lucky he hadn’t been caught.

Jeremy made himself turn away and look out the window. The plane was descending with only thirty minutes left until landing. He concentrated on glimpses of blue ocean and green jungle below as he tried to pull it together. If he didn’t get a hold of himself, this trip was going to lead to trouble. Gina was off limits. She had to be.

Yeah, they’d shared one pretty fabulous night a month ago, but they couldn’t have any more than that. She was his closest friend’s sister, for god’s sake. He didn’t even want to think about what Blake would say if he knew about that night. Most of all, Gina deserved better than getting mixed up with him.

There was a reason why he kept his hookups simple. No commitments, no feelings. He was pretty damn sure that he wasn’t capable of a more developed relationship. He couldn’t even manage a deeper attachment with his own family, so he didn’t see how he could with anyone else.

He stole a glance at Gina again, and this time she caught his eye and smiled.

“Almost there,” she said. “I’ll be glad to be off this plane.”

“Soon enough,” he responded, his tone gruffer than he meant it to be. He looked away again.

The flight landed minutes later, bumping down hard on the tarmac. Gina gasped and her hand gripped his arm. She hadn’t seemed like a nervous flier, but he studied her face. She looked pale, and the usual rosiness of her cheeks was gone. Was she ill?

“You okay?” he asked as the plane taxied toward the terminal.

“I’ll be fine. Just a little woozy from the flight, which is weird.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “Flying doesn’t usually bother me.”

He wondered if she was nervous about the danger they’d be facing. “It’s not too late to back out. You could wait here in Bogota for me or catch a flight home tomorrow.”

“No way,” she declared, standing up to disembark. “We’re in this together.”

They retrieved their bags and made their way to the car-rental desk. He’d arranged for an SUV, rugged enough to manage the terrain they’d drive in the jungle. Getting the vehicle should have been easy, but there seemed to be some sort of mix up. Jeremy was attempting to communicate with the agent to fix it, but he wasn’t making much progress.

“Let me,” Gina said from next to him, immediately taking over the discussion. Her Spanish was flawless, and in an impressively short amount of time, they were signing the paperwork. The agent handed over the keys and point to the lot where the vehicle was.

“Should I drive since I can read the road signs?” she asked, a teasing note in her voice.

“That skill will make you a great navigator,” he said.

She shook her head. “Typical guy. You have to be in control.”

“I have the keys.” He held them up.

“Only because I negotiated with the rental guy,” she pointed out. “Without me, you’d still be standing there, hoping Google translate could help you.”

“My Spanish isn’t that bad,” he protested.

“It’s not that great either. Good thing I came along on this trip,” she said when they reached the vehicle. “Now, who’s driving?”

“Me.”

She hoisted her suitcase into the backend. “Today, you can drive. Starting tomorrow, we’ll swap. I’m very capable.”

He knew that. She was capable and tenacious, traits he admired, but ones that made him doubt her promise to let him call the shots.

* * *

“Let’s head for the motel, and then get some dinner,” he said as they drove toward the city.

“Shouldn’t we stop for some supplies first so that we can get an early start in the morning?” Gina suggested. “We’ll need bottled water, food, and I’m not sure what else.” She’d packed medical supplies including bandages and medications, but it hadn’t occurred to her to bring along something that she was starting to feel the need for.

A pregnancy test.

In the rush to prepare for the trip, she’d tried to ignore the waves of nausea and dizziness that kept occurring. On the plane with so many hours just to think, she’d started to wonder if her symptoms weren’t nerves and stress but something else. That thought had her counting backwards to the start of her last period and acknowledging that she was late.

While pretending to check messages on her phone, she consulted a calendar. Her last period was two weeks prior to the night she’d spent with Jeremy, which meant that she’d had seriously passionate sex when she was at peak fertility. Oh, boy. They’d used protection, but in her work, she’d seen too many women who’d gotten pregnant despite the use of a condom. Nothing was one hundred percent effective at preventing pregnancy—and the efficacy of condoms went way down if you weren’t paying attention to the possibility of a small tear. Between the wine and the passion between them, they hadn’t been paying attention to much other than each other.

It was possible that she was pregnant. Possible, not probable, she told herself. A pregnancy test would put her mind at rest.

“That looks like a good place to stop.” Gina pointed to a store as they neared their motel’s location. She’d chosen a large store because she had to sneak away from Jeremy and make the purchase without him noticing. There was no point in worrying him over something that was probably a false alarm.

They entered the store and made their way to the snack aisle together.

“Nutter Butters,” Gina took a package of the cookies off the shelf and put them in the cart.

“You eat junk food?” Jeremy questioned with a sideways look at her. “Since when?”

Oh, god, was this a craving? No, the peanut butter cookies were just her go to for stress eating. “They have some nutritional value,” she insisted, and kept her face turned away from him.

“Next thing, you’ll be eating Oreos,” he teased as he added crackers.

“I suppose you’re going to pretend it’s all protein bars and whole grain bread for you? Don’t forget I’ve seen you polish off a half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting,” she shot back, keeping her tone light.

“We’ll need quality fuel for the mission.” He put granola bars in the cart. “We’re going to spend a lot of time on foot, and it won’t be easy going.”

“Good thing I’m in shape,” she said, flexing her bicep for him. She ran and went to the gym and felt she was up to the physical challenges, but if she was pregnant… No point in worrying about it until she knew one way or the other. “I’m going to go grab a few extra medical supplies. Why don’t you get the drinks and I’ll meet you at the checkout?”

“Works for me.” He headed off toward the drink aisle while she made a beeline for the area of the store where the pregnancy tests were most likely to be.

Thankful for her proficiency in Spanish, she quickly selected an early response test and purchased it at the nearby pharmacy window. She tucked it out of sight in the bottom of her shoulder bag. Her heart was racing, and she felt dizzy again. Probably just nerves. She didn’t like deceiving Jeremy like this, but it was for his own good. He’d freak out if he knew what was in her bag.

She took a minute to get herself under control and then picked up some extra bandages before meeting him at the front of the store.

“All set?” he asked when he saw her.

“Ready.” She smiled at him and hoped that he couldn’t tell it was forced.